October 10, 2010

Colin Wyers (BP) on Alexei Ramirez

White Sox: SS Alexei Ramirez, +4.5 WARP. This might seem a bit of a surprise given Paul Konerko‘s career year (and Paulie is at +2.8), but the Cuban import has settled in to deliver an excellent second season at shortstop after getting moved across the bag in 2009, which shows up in WARP as well as in a variety of defensive metrics. Add in his getting some of his power back, and you’ve got a much better player.

WARP is:

Wins Above Replacement Player, level 1. The number of wins this player contributed, above what a replacement level hitter, fielder, and pitcher would have done, with adjustments only for within the season. It should be noted that a team which is at replacement level in all three of batting, pitching, and fielding will be an extraordinarily bad team, on the order of 20-25 wins in a 162-game season.

WARP is also listed on a player’s PECOTA card. The PECOTA WARP listing is designed to correspond to WARP-1, not WARP-2 or WARP-3.